''First a Girl'' is a 1935 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Victor Saville Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962. Biography Saville produced his first f ...

and starring

Jessie Matthews Jessie Margaret Matthews (11 March 1907 – 19 August 1981) was an English actress, dancer and singer of the 1920s and 1930s, whose career continued into the post-war period. After a string of hit stage musicals and films in the mid-1930s, Ma ...

. ''First a Girl'' was adapted from the 1933 German film ''

Viktor und Viktoria ''Victor and Victoria'' (german: Viktor und Viktoria) is a 1933 German musical comedy film written and directed by Reinhold Schünzel, starring Renate Müller as a woman pretending to be a female impersonator. The following year, Schünzel dir ...

'' written and directed by

Reinhold Schünzel Reinhold Schünzel (7 November 1888 – 11 November 1954) was a German actor and director, active in both Germany and the United States. The son of a German father and a Jewish mother, he was born in St. Pauli, the poorest part of Hamburg. Despite ...

. It was remade as the 1982 American musical comedy

Victor Victoria ''Victor/Victoria'' is a 1982 Musical film, musical comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston (actor), Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras, and John Rhys-Davies. The fi ...

starring Julie Andrews.

Plot

Fashion designer Madame Seraphina stages an elaborate catwalk show for a specially invited audience, including Princess Miranoff. Watching the fashion parade are the designer's shop girls, including Elizabeth (Jessie Matthews), who dances for the amusement of her colleagues and impersonates the Princess. Madame Seraphina asks Elizabeth to deliver some purchases to Princess Miranoff but she is distracted on the way by a theatrical audition. Despite borrowing Princess Miranoff's glamorous clothes, she does not get a part. It is pouring with rain as she leaves the theatre and her borrowed clothes get drenched. Going into a café to dry off she finds herself sitting opposite an actor called Victor, (Sonnie Hale) whom she met earlier at the audition. He confides in her that although he performs in drag as music hall act 'Victoria', he dreams of being a Shakespearean actor. Elizabeth begins to cry when she realises that she will probably lose her job after failing to deliver Princess Miranoff's purchases. Victor takes her back to his boarding house and she irons the dress to make it look as if it hasn't been worn. Victor receives a letter asking him to perform his drag act but he has lost his voice due to being caught in the rain. As Elizabeth consoles him she realises that she has forgotten the iron - it has burned a hole in Princess Miranoff's dress. Elizabeth begins to laugh at their misfortune and Victor has a brainwave: Elizabeth could stand in for him and pose as a female impersonator. Elizabeth's first music hall performance is a great success, despite runaway geese storming the stage and spilt milk causing her to slip over several times. Music hall promoter McLintock comes backstage and offers Elizabeth a contract. Elizabeth begins touring Europe as female impersonator 'Bill' using Victor's stage name 'Victoria'. Princess Miranoff and her fiancé Robert attend one of 'Bill's' performances. Robert makes it clear that he is attracted to the woman on stage and when she takes off her wig to reveal boyishly cropped hair he is shocked and embarrassed. At a nightclub after the show Victor attempts to charm Princess Miranoff with Shakespeare recitations as Robert has a manly chat with 'Bill'. Elizabeth is forced to smoke a cigar and drink large whiskeys as she attempts to maintain the pretence that she is a man. When Princess Miranoff finds a feminine hair comb under a chair she begins to suspect that 'Bill' is indeed a woman. She and Robert invite their new friends to travel with them to the South of France with the intention of tricking 'Bill' into revealing his true gender. The three 'men' are forced to share a room in a guesthouse for a night but Elizabeth manages to maintain her disguise. At the villa she has rented with Victor, Elizabeth revels in the chance to wear women's clothes again. Swimming in the sea, she gets into trouble when Robert surprises her by turning up; he has to use lifesaving techniques to get her back to shore. In a tight fitting swimsuit there is no doubt that she is a woman and Robert is tempted to kiss her but he apologises, turns and swims away. Tired of pretending to be a man, Elizabeth tells the Princess she is in love with Robert and will fight for him. The Princess vows to expose Elizabeth as a fraud. Robert, believing that Victor and Elizabeth are lovers, punches Victor and spurns Elizabeth when she approaches him dressed in her own, feminine clothes. When Victor explains that they are just good friends, Robert chases Elizabeth in his car so that he can express his love for her. They kiss but Elizabeth has to cut their romantic interlude short in order to drive to the theatre for a performance. A newspaper reporter who has caught a glimpse of Elizabeth in women's clothing arrives at the theatre with two Gendarmes in order to expose her deception. Victor saves the day by performing 'Everything's in Rhythm With My Heart' in drag to amusing effect. Princess Miranoff pledges to fund Victor in Shakespearean theatre and despite Elizabeth having a man's passport, she is waved across the French border to begin her new life with Robert.

Cast

as Elizabeth *

Sonnie Hale John Robert Hale-Monro (1 May 1902 – 9 June 1959), known as Sonnie Hale, was an English actor, screenwriter, and director. Early life John Robert Hale-Monro was born in Kensington, London, the son of Belle Reynolds and actor Robert Hal ...

as Victor *

Anna Lee Anna Lee, MBE (born Joan Boniface Winnifrith; 2 January 1913 – 14 May 2004) was a British actress, labelled by studios "The British Bombshell". Early life Anna Lee was born Joan Boniface Winnifrith in Ightham, (pronounced 'Item'), Kent, th ...

as Princess Mironoff * Griffith Jones as Robert * Alfred Drayton as Mr. McLintock * Constance Godridge as Beryl * Eddie Gray as Goose Trainer *

Martita Hunt Martita Edith Hunt (30 January 190013 June 1969) was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havish ...

as Madame Seraphina * Donald Stewart as Singer

Critical reception

BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

wrote, "Of all the Matthews/Hale collaborations, this one seems the most polished and even-handed. A huge success at the time it was released, First a Girl is possibly the quintessential Jessie Matthews musical and certainly the most enduringly amusing for a modern audience."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:First A Girl 1935 films 1935 musical comedy films British musical comedy films British black-and-white films Cross-dressing in film Films directed by Victor Saville Films produced by Michael Balcon British remakes of German films Films set in London Films set in France 1930s English-language films 1930s British films